Lessons in Personal Branding from Greece

I have spent the last two weeks in Greece with some amazing experiences and learning.

Athens with its history of 7000 years has a lot to offer. It is hard to make meaning of some of the buildings and the rubble.

My tour guide Mariana makes it easy for us to understand and appreciate the rich history of this land. An archeologist who studied in Greece and Netherlands, works as a tour guide. She can’t find a job as an archeologist in the current economy and says that being a tour guide is the next best thing to being an archeologist. I already like her. She is passionate, energetic, engaged and polite. At the same time, she is firm and in-charge. We are an excited bunch of 20 odd tourists from all over the world. At times, we need to be shepherded and channeled.

Mariana has a deep knowledge of her history. She has a lot of pride in what her country gave to the world. She is a proud Greek. She has mastered the art of storytelling. She brought nail biting finishes to the story of the birth of Goddess Athena, the war between God Poseidon and Goddess Athena and many more. She is pained (by the fact that there are) important (Greek) monuments sitting in UK museums. She is frustrated about the rise of ugly graffiti in Athens. In essence, she is not afraid to share her opinions.

She engages us by asking questions. She uses the word curious many times saying, “You may be curious about …”, inviting us to be open and interested in the information that may seem foreign to us or not make sense to our rational brain.

She welcomes our questions. In fact, encourages us to ask more.

I am impressed and delighted that she covers the most important parts of Athens with me.

On another tour, we have another guide. I don’t have her name and I didn’t bother to ask. When she arrives, you already get a sense that she is doing this just as a job, mechanically checking everything off the list, but not really fully engaged. We are just another set of “boring tourists” for her. She gives information in spurts and is disconnected. There are no stories told to hold our attention. She doesn’t make an extra effort to engage us. I don’t know her any better after spending more than half a day with her. At the site of the temple of Poseidon in Cape Sauvignon, it is very windy. We climb together at the top and as we group together to know more, she says it is too windy to talk, so she will give us free time to take pictures. After that, she sits in the nearby café talking on the phone.

Both Mariana and this tour guide are doing their stated duties. However, the experience each one of them leaves me with is starkly different. I took notes when Mariana spoke. I had a hard time keeping awake when the other one did.

Each one of them is approaching their job from a different place. One is from her values, commitment and heart and the other is guided by perhaps the money it brings. I ask Mariana at the end of the tour if it ever gets repetitive and boring to go to the same attractions and cover them every day. She says it never does, because there are different people and different questions every day. There is something new she takes away every day. I tell her that her approach and demeanor make such a huge difference to our experience of the place. She humbly shrugs it off and says,

“I am a student. I am trying and learning every day to become better.”

Mariana is a classic example of (someone who has) a strong personal brand. I will recommend her to anyone going to Athens.

Personal brand is how we are perceived by others. It is what people say about us as we walk out of the room. For Mariana, it will be guaranteed positive. It was evident in the tips people gave her and the pictures they took with her at the end of the tour.

The good news is that you can build a personal brand that is reflective of YOU. It demonstrates your strengths, values and expertise. A strong personal brand begins with who you really are.

As coaches, that is one common area people come to us for. As I help them understand their unique value proposition and the best way to tell their story, especially on social media, they light up into the NEW self.

Once you learn to identify your strengths, define your brand, and determine what it is you want to achieve, creating your personal brand becomes easy. With a clear message, you raise your visibility to the next level including social media, focusing on LinkedIn.

With training in Personal Branding, you get to know he insider secrets that will help you get noticed and create a powerful profile.

Ask me about such training!

I want people to talk about you in the strongest, positive manner possible. And if you’re not sure what you want them to say, I help you with that.